Veterans remember the Falklands Conflict 40 years on

Forty years after the Falklands conflict between Britain and Argentina, we invited veterans of the campaign to look back, and to look ahead to later life. First up is Lenny, a submariner. Here is his story:

I enlisted in 1976 aged 16 ½.  Getting to see the world with the Navy was fantastic.  In 1982 I was a 22-year-old Leading Seaman working in the control room of nuclear submarine HMS Valiant. When the Falklands kicked-off we stocked with torpedoes and as much food as we could carry.  We knew things were for real when before departure shore crew welded all hatches shut except one in the conning tower. 

We made all haste.  The submarine shuddered night and day; it was like riding a lorry down cobblestones at 60mph.  It took us about two weeks.   We picked up linguists who had to learn Spanish on the way.  They spoke Russian - we’d had no idea that we’d be at war with a Spanish speaking country. 

One of our first tasks was to intercept an Argentinian submarine.  Until their ‘signatures’ were identified, we had to be lucky.  Once our captain told the sonar guys to ‘listen better’ as he could see the enemy close by on his periscope! 

The Argentinian coast is like the Western Isles, lots of islets. We followed an enemy destroyer around it for four days. It was risky. Depths estimates in our charts were often made by whalers with lead lines.

There were close calls. An enemy jet returning home ditched its bombs in the sea, unwittingly nearly taking us out.  After surrender, we kept watch on the Argentine fleet.  Once they spotted us and their transmissions changed from search to attack mode.  We ran!

We arrived home on an evening, but that didn’t suit TV schedules, so we sailed around Arran and came in the next day.  We were pale and skinny, on a rolls and rehydrated soup ration. Seeing me, my parents said, ‘oh my God’! 

I was happy to have survived without seeing serious action.  It was scary enough being there.  I’ve since wondered, did it matter?  It did: you can’t allow dictators to bully you.

If left the Navy in 1990.  I got an 18 month contract a Heriot Watt University and, 25 years later I’m still there, but about to retire.   The military is a way of life, and you never forget.  But since, I’ve not been involved with the ex-service community.  Now, I plan to see the world before I’m too old.  I’ll take things as they come.